About 50 electric buses to be on road in Delhi by next month

Delhi Transport Corporation plans to introduce fifty electric buses by the second week of February, and 300 more are likely to arrive by April, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said.

During the inauguration of 100 new AC CNG buses on Friday at Rajghat, Gahlot said, “The first prototype of the electric bus has already reached Delhi and will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday (January 17). Fifty e-buses will be inducted into DTC`s fleet by the second week of February and the target to admit 300 e-buses is likely to be achieved till April.”

Besides being disabled-friendly, these new low-floor CNG AC buses are fully compliant with BS-VI emission standards and are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities like a real-time passenger information system, CCTVs, panic buttons and GPS, among others, according to the Delhi government.

“With the induction of these 100 buses, Delhi now has nearly 6,900 buses — a figure that has never been obtained before,” Kejriwal said, adding that during the 2010 CommonWealth Games, there were nearly 6,000 buses in the national capital.

In November 2021, the Delhi Cabinet had approved the induction of 190 low-floor AC CNG buses under its cluster scheme.

With the induction of these buses, (the) total number of cluster buses has reached 3,383 and the total bus fleet in national capital has reached an all-time high of 7,140.

Under the cluster scheme, total 3,033 non-AC and AC buses have been operated by the state government.

The Cabinet had also said that 300 electric buses will also be inducted into the DTC fleet by the start of 2022 – a target which is yet to be completed.